PROMPTINGS: A Fresh Start

It's the only occasion in scripture where we have an example of Jesus writing something down. No, it wasn't the text of a talk he was about to deliver. He wasn't preserving his wisdom for posterity's sake. Actually, his writing was kind of simple. In fact, John says simply that Jesus scribbled in the sand.

The occasion? A woman caught in adultery had been brought to Jesus by the religious leaders demanding that she be stoned for her sin and evidently seeing just how Jesus would rule. "This woman has been caught in the very act of adultery," they told Jesus.

Jesus scribbled in the sand.

Dismayed by Jesus's apparent dismissal, they pressed him further.

"Well, then. The one who hasn't committed any sins be my guest. Cast the first stone," Jesus said.

At this, the crowd dispersed, leaving Jesus and the woman alone. Trembling and afraid - perhaps thinking that Jesus would lecture her on her morality and tell her how lucky she was to be alive, the woman lingers.

"Where are your accusers? Is no one left?"

"No one," the woman replied.

"Then neither do I accuse you. Go and sin no more."

In a moment, the burden of sin and guilt is lifted. Forgiveness is imparted. There is reconcilation with God - the opportunity to let go of anything that could possibly be in the way of a new life. God speaks new life into this woman. It is time for a fresh start. It's time to begin again.

Over and over people describe in detail the actions, the hurtful words, the patterns of behavior from their past that prevent them from beginning again. As if the script had been written by their parents for them or by their grandparents and they were simply living it out. Addiction. Alcoholism. Depression. Despair. No doubt many of these things were breathed into our lives by others. And it's beneficial to become made aware of influences on one's life that operate at times below the conscious level.

Jesus's message to these people - indeed to us - indeed to the woman is that there is no script more powerful than God's love and forgiveness. God's message in Christ is of a new kingdom - a new reality altogether where all the old rules no longer apply. Rather than being bound to a law of determinism - that we must settle for our brokenness because it's what we've inherited or what we're used to - God says through Jesus that there is new life.

You can't put new wine into old wineskins, Jesus said, knowing that what he had to offer us was new wine.

Are you ready to leave some of the old wine in the old wineskins? Are you ready to leave the old habits, the old fears and anxiety and self-doubting back in the old life you had before? Then do like the woman caught in adultery. Go, now. No one is accusing you. Your accusers are all dispersed. It's just you and Jesus and he's writing in the sand. And he's telling you to "go and sin no more."

Let today be the fresh start you've been praying for.